Home - Garden
Breaking Down The Costs Of Installing A French Drain
By KYLE SCHURMAN
If water drainage problems are threatening your home’s foundation, consider installing a French drain to collect excess surface water and groundwater and divert it to another area.
At an average expense of $10,000, it can be costly to hire a landscaper or a plumber to install your French drain, so you may opt to do it yourself and pay only for materials.
WINNI on TikTok demonstrated an installation, estimating $2,300 for materials, including PVC pipe, PVC cement, a basin, gravel, filter fabric, a wheelbarrow, a shovel, and a level.
Cost of materials depends on project distance — usually 100 to 200 linear feet — but installing in the middle of a yard costs less than installing around a foundation exterior.
The perforated drainage pipe needed to build a French drain costs from 50 cents to $3 per linear foot. Home Depot charges about $20 for a 10-foot pipe with a 4-inch diameter.
Filter fabric costs about $81 for a 300-foot roll that's 3 feet wide at Home Depot. Drainage gravel costs between $500 and $1,000 depending on the size and depth of your trench.
To build a DIY French drain, you need to dig a trench by hand for a drain installed against a foundation, or rent a trenching machine at $100 to $200 a day for a drain in the yard.
Once the trench is dug, install the waterproofing and the drainage pipe, add enough gravel to cover the pipe, level the gravel, then refill the trench with dirt and tamp it down.